Ivy League Football

The Ivy League set an example many conferences eventually followed when it canceled its men's and women's basketball tournaments in March, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut believes its decision on fall sports should once again set a precedent amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"There's absolutely nothing different between the Ivy League and any division except for the money, to be very blunt," Blumenthal said, per Steve Berkowitz of USA Today. "It's about the money. And if the other schools fail to follow the Ivy League's lead, it will be only because of the money. And, in fact, it will be another misguided act in a long litany of putting school profits ahead of the people who play for them."

The comments come after the Ivy League announced Wednesday that it canceled its fall sports season.

"A decision on the remaining winter and spring sports competition calendar, and on whether fall sport competition would be feasible in the spring, will be determined at a later date," the statement said.

Blumenthal, who went to Harvard as an undergraduate and Yale for law school, said the Ivy League was "absolutely right on moral and health grounds" and noted every conference is "dealing with the same health threats and the same age population and the same vulnerabilities when students play football and other sports that either involve contact or close proximity."

After the Ivy League canceled its men's and women's basketball tournaments, the Power Five conferences all eventually followed suit. The NCAA also canceled the men's and women's NCAA tournaments and the entirety of the spring sports schedule.

College athletics, like so many other areas in the United States, has dealt with increasing COVID-19 concerns as the numbers continue to go up in a variety of places across the country.

On Wednesday, Ohio State announced it suspended voluntary workouts for seven sports, including football and both basketball teams, following positive tests for student-athletes.

Bryan Fischer of College Football Talk noted Ohio State joined North Carolina, Kansas, Texas, Kansas State, Houston, Boise State and Arizona in making such a decision. What's more, Clemson, LSU and Texas were among the high-profile programs with a number of positive tests among players since they returned to campuses for voluntary workouts.

As of Wednesday, the United States has the most confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the world at more than three million and the most deaths resulting from the virus at more than 132,000.

The Ivy League announced Wednesday that it is canceling its fall sports season amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

According to the league's statement, "A decision on the remaining winter and spring sports competition calendar, and on whether fall sport competition would be feasible in the spring, will be determined at a later date."

The Ivy League announced March 10 it was cancelling its men's and women's basketball tournaments. At the time, the conference received some pushback because the pandemic hadn't yet reached its current proportions.

However, the move looked prescient as more conferences followed in bringing their tournaments to a premature end to limit the spread of the coronavirus. On March 12, the NCAA scrapped the remaining winter championships and the spring season altogether.

The hope was that the pandemic would slow enough during the summer so as not to jeopardize the upcoming fall sports season.

Instead, the number of cases have trended upward. According to the World Health Organization, the United States is the leader in both cases (2.9 million) and deaths (129,963) from the coronavirus.

The NCAA Division I Council allowed programs to resume voluntary on-campus workouts on a limited basis for football and basketball starting June 1. Since then, numerous schools have reported positive cases.

The Ivy League's decision is a somewhat ominous sign for the fate of the 2020 college football season, which is scheduled to begin Aug. 29.

Incoming Cornell recruit Nate Panza was reportedly kicked off the football team after a Snapchat video was released online early Sunday morning showing him saying the N-word, according to Kathryn Stamm and Luke Pichini of the Cornell Daily Sun. 

Panza says the word offscreen before the video pans to him and he says, "Oh wait, you can't put that one up. You can't post that. Adam, you can't post that."

Panza was referring to Adam Giaquinto, an incoming University of Richmond student and Panza's high school classmate in Morristown, New Jersey, who was filming the video. Giaquinto also used the N-word on the video after saying George Floyd's name. 

The school, Morristown-Beard, released the following statement Sunday:

Panza, a running back prospect, released the following statement:

"A video was taken of me using a word that is offensive and hurtful. The word has a long history of cruelty for the black community and is simply wrong. I am heartbroken I have hurt people; those I know and those I do not. I take full responsibility for my actions.

"I do not believe that my language that night aligns with who I have tried to be as a person, the values I live by or the manner in which I have conducted myself as an athlete. My immediate reaction to the video was to reach out to my entire high school community to offer my sincerest apologies."

Richmond said it was investigating the issue:

Cornell has not yet released an official response.

"I plan to better educate myself on the issues of racism and injustice in America, as I want to be part of the solution and not the problem," Panza also said in the statement. "The label 'racist' is not something I can live with and I will work to prove that every day for the rest of my life. It is my humble hope that I will come out of this incident as a better ally, better friend and better person."